For the second weekend in a row, the Breeders’ Cup Problem Collection: Win and You are In runs via Del Mar and Saratoga Race Course, which supply two of North America’s most interesting summer season race meets. Three such races are carded Aug. 31 at Del Mar, the host web site for this fall’s Nov. 1-2 Breeders’ Cup, whereas Saratoga has one on Saturday and one other the next day.
Del Mar’s qualifiers embody its signature race, the $1 million Pacific Traditional (G1), and two supporting turf races on the Saturday card, the Inexperienced Flash Handicap (G3T) at 5 furlongs for turf sprinters and the Del Mar Handicap (G2T) at 1 3/8 miles for grass stayers. The Pacific Traditional povides its winner with an expense-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Traditional (G1), and the Inexperienced Flash Handicap and Del Mar Handicap will propel their victors into the Breeders’ Cup Turf Dash (G1T) and Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T), respectively.
The Del Mar races present the good thing about a neighborhood race upfront of the Breeders’ Cup. The Pacific Traditional and Inexperienced Flash Handicap are additionally on the exact distances of corresponding Breeders’ Cup races.
In the meantime, at Saratoga, the Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T) advances its winner towards the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T), and the Jockey Membership Gold Cup (G1) is a steppingstone to the Traditional.
This 12 months’s thirty fourth working of the Pacific Traditional doesn’t seem like a classic renewal, although the presence of the multi-millionaire mare Adare Manor  provides pleasure. One among two grade 1 winners within the area, the Michael Lund Petersen-owned mare will try to emulate Beholder , the one feminine race winner, in 2015. Like Beholder that 12 months, Adare Manor can also be coming into the Pacific Traditional with a win in opposition to females within the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1), incomes her an computerized berth into the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).
Although she has but to face males, the Bob Baffert-trained daughter of Uncle Mo   is more likely to be favored after a 2 3/4-length victory within the Hirsch that got here after she recovered from being shuffled again in site visitors on the flip. She receives a weight break from her male rivals, carrying 119 kilos, 5 lower than her counterparts.
The opposite top-level stakes winner within the nine-horse area is There Goes Harvard , who took the Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) at Santa Anita in 2022. The 6-year-old son of Will Take Cost , cross-entered within the Del Mar Handicap, is winless in 5 begins since his top-level stakes victory. Together with his Hollywood Gold Cup triumph, he has a win on the Pacific Traditional distance of 1 1/4 miles, the one entrant confirmed on the journey.
Dr. Venkman and Katonah , 1-2 within the San Diego Handicap (G2), are among the many different main challengers, although neither has raced past 1 1/16 miles. Adare Manor can also be stretching out to a traditional distance for the primary time, not having raced past 1 1/8 miles.
Inaugurated in 1991, the Pacific Traditional turned a grade 1 for its third working in 1993 and has lengthy attracted lots of California’s high horses.Â
Two horses have pulled off the Pacific Traditional-Breeders’ Cup Traditional double in the identical 12 months: Speed up in 2018 and Flightline  in 2022. The latter was at his most sensible within the two races, taking the Pacific Traditional by 19 1/4 lengths and the Breeders’ Cup Traditional by an 8 1/4-length margin.
With John Sadler coaching, Hronis Racing has gained 4 Pacific Classics since 2018, solely or in partnership. These similar connections run Full Serrano in Saturday’s race.
Throughout the nation on Sunday, Arthur’s Experience will purpose to turn into the primary winner of the Whitney Stakes (G1) and Jockey Membership Gold Cup in the identical 12 months since Colonial Affair in 1994.
A grey and/or roan 4-year-old son of Tapit   owned by Glassman Racing and skilled by Corridor of Famer Invoice Mott, Arthur’s Experience already grabbed a “Win and You are In” berth within the Traditional along with his win within the Aug. 3, 1 1/8-mile Whitney—one of the vital impactful races for older males on the stakes calendar. A front-runner with Junior Alvarado within the saddle, he seems to be the controlling pace of the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Membership Gold Cup and is more likely to be closely favored.
“He is had 4 weeks in between. We hope he has had sufficient time in between,” mentioned Mott, a four-time Jockey Membership Gold Cup winner. “He ran an enormous race final time, and we hope he can fireplace again that very same shot.”
One other Corridor of Fame coach, Todd Pletcher, begins the 1-2 punch of Brilliant Future  and Tapit Trice  in a bid for consecutive wins within the 106th version of the historic race.
Repole Steady and St. Elias Stables’ Brilliant Future, a boring eighth over a muddy observe within the Whitney, prevailed within the 2023 Gold Cup earlier than a sixth-place end within the Breeders’ Cup Traditional. He provides blinkers for Sunday’s race.
Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Steady’s Tapit Trice, a grade 1 winner final 12 months at 3, comes off a 5 1/4-length romp within the July 27 Monmouth Cup at Monmouth Park.
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